OK, we know this isn't a true 'quiet storm' album, but when we
asked Andy he just said 'Well, some of it's quiet, and there's a
storm on it!' so we left it at that.

We did ask him if he really intended to release an album of Motown
covers, and he told us this:

'No. Although the Isley Brothers spent three years at Tamla Motown
- during which time they recorded the 1966 classic This Old Heart
of Mine (Is Weak for You) - they had already had hits on other
labels, notably with their own song Shout! in 1959 - memorably
covered in the UK for her debut single in 1964 by 15 year old
Scottish singing sensation Lulu - and a cover of the Topnotes'
Twist and Shout - best known, perhaps, from the Beatles' version on
Please Please Me, also a hit in 1964 when released as as a single
in the US.

'The Isleys had first formed a band in 1954 - the year of my birth,
as it happens - and had been gigging with a Seattle guitarist by
the name of Jimmy James, who was, just a few years later, to embark
on a successful solo career under his own name: Jimi Hendrix.

'Anyway, to get to the point - many believe that the Isleys' most
enduring work came after they split with Berry Gordy, and released
records on their own T-Neck label for Buddah and Epic. There must
have been upwards of 40 covers of Jim Seals and Dash Crofts' Summer
Breeze, but the Isleys' is the only one I've ever heard, so that's
the one I was influenced by.

'I remember when Tracks of My Tears first came out, and it's been
on of my favourite songs ever since. I didn't need to be told that
it was Number 50 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
- in fact, it should have been higher. And I've always wanted to
record it like this, as a guitar song. In fact, it was the
Miracles' guitarist Marv Tarplin who came up with the idea, and
singers Smokey and Pete Moore helped finish it off - so it was
really a guitar number all along.

'Ooh Baby Baby, of course, is another Smokey Robinson song.
Coincidentally, both Tracks of My Tears and Ooh Baby Baby - their
previous single, also released in 1965 - reached the same position,
Number 16, on the Billboard Hot 100, and both were covered by Linda
Ronstadt. Not entirely coincidence, as I like her versions as
well, and these are my two favourite Miracles songs. Not their
most successful, by the way: Tears of a Clown - co-written by
Smokey, Hank Cosby and Stevie Wonder - from the band's 1967 album
Make It Happen - became their first Number 1 in 1970, eclipsed only
by 1976's Love Machine (Part 1), another Number 1 hit, which was
recorded after Smokey himself had left the band.

'Both the Isleys AND the Miracles had recorded versions of Heard it
through the Grapevine before it was given to Marvin Gaye by
producer Norman Whitfield, who had written the song with partner
Barrett Strong. Both versions were rejected by Berry Gordy - as
was Gaye's. A fourth version, by Gladys Knight and the Pips was
accepted for release and became Motown's biggest selling single to
date, reaching Number 2 in the US Pop charts in 1967. Whitfield
still preferred the Marvin Gaye version, and arranged for it be
included on Gaye's 1968 album In the Groove. It proved the most
popular track on the album, and after pressure from DJ's, was
released as a single. It remained at Number 1 for seven weeks from
December 1968 to January 1969, sales eclipsing the previous
version, which delighted everyone at Motown - except Gladys Knight
and the Pips! A new recording by the Miracles' was released on
their 1968 album Special Occasions, and their original version on a
compilation Motown Sings Motown Treasures in 2004, but the Isleys'
has yet to see the light of day.

The Pips were unable to equal the success of Heard it through the
Grapevine until their 1972 Number 2 Neither One of Us (Wants to Be
the First to Say Goodbye). Like the Isleys before them, they had
to depart to Buddah for their greatest single hit, Midnight Train
to Georgia. Grapevine, meanwhile, received the rock treatment by
Creedance Clearwater Revival in 1970. This version doesn't follow
that arrangement, although it is, surprisingly, several minutes
longer.'